Troy Stabenow

Position:

Assistant Federal Defender

Office Location:

Jefferson City

Troy Stabenow earned his law degree from the University of Iowa in 1997. He then served eight years on active duty with the U.S. Army's JAG Corps. During five years abroad (one in Korea and four more in Germany), he tried a number of internationally sensitive cases and rose to become the senior prosecutor for a seven-office region in Hesse and the Rheinland-Pfalz. In 2003, he requested a transfer to defense work. He returned to the United States and assumed duties as the senior defense attorney for a three-attorney office at Fort Riley, Kansas. Troy tried cases throughout the Midwest and became known nationally as a guest speaker on trial advocacy and computer crime defenses.

In 2005, Troy resigned from active duty to become an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Missouri. He helped open our Jefferson City office in March of that year, and has remained in that position ever since.

In 2008, Troy authored "Deconstructing the Myth of Careful Study: A Primer on the Flawed Progression of the Child Pornography Guidelines," a paper that dramatically changed the Judiciary's attitude towards child pornography sentences. In 2012 he published a follow-on article that documented changes in sentencing policies, analyzed recidivism studies in the field, and proposed better ways to tailor sentences to the offender. His work has been the subject of federal opinions in almost every circuit. He regularly speaks around the country to large audiences on computer crimes and creative sentencing practices.

In addition to his position as an Assistant Federal Public Defender, Troy has also served as an adjunct professor at both the University of Missouri Law School and at the
U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Legal School and Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is the author of the four-volume "West Federal Forms for District Courts - Criminal (2012)." and serves on the 8th Circuit Criminal Jury Instructions Subcommittee.

Troy continues to practice criminal law in the U.S. Army Reserves. The Federal Sentencing Reporter published his most recent law review article in March of 2015. The article examines the changing treatment of victims in military and civilian courts.